1938–39 National Basketball League (United States) season

The 1938–39 NBL season was the fourth overall season for the U.S.A.'s National Basketball League (NBL) and its second season under that name after previously going by the Midwest Basketball Conference (a semipro or amateur precursor to the NBL) in its first two seasons of existence. This season would see only eight teams compete against each other in the second season of its existence under the NBL name, as six teams would either leave the NBL to become independent teams again or just fold operations otherwise, while only one team would join the NBL by New Year's Eve of 1938 with the Sheboygan Red Skins joining the league on that date, similar to the Oshkosh All-Stars joining the NBL on December 1937 despite its season beginning a month earlier on their end. This led to there being a total of four teams competing in both the Eastern and Western Divisions this season, with each team playing a total of 26-28 scheduled NBL games played this season. Interestingly, this would be the only NBL season where the NBL Playoffs would involve a championship series matchup only, with it being a championship series between the Akron Firestone Non-Skids of the Eastern Division and the Oshkosh All-Stars of the Western Division. This led to the end result of the Akron Firestone Non-Skids defeating the Oshkosh All-Stars three games to two in the shortest playoffs the NBL ever had. An entire book focusing on the NBL's existence would be released in 2009 by historian and author Murry R. Nelson called "The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949", with an entire chapter being dedicated to this season of play.^[2]

Following its 12th season of existence as the NBL, the NBL and Basketball Association of America (the latter league not existing until 1946) merged operations to create the National Basketball Association. Despite the NBL continuing to exist until the 1948–49 NBL season as the longer-lasting operation, the NBL would not recognize the twelve NBL seasons (nor the two MBC precursor seasons nor even the one National Professional Basketball League season that inspired the league's creation) as a part of its own history (outside of certain circumstances), sometimes without comment. As such, none of the previous twelve NBL seasons nor even the two MBC seasons would officially be recognized by the NBA, with the NBA recognizing the 1946–47 BAA season as its first official season of play instead.

Of the eight NBL teams that competed in the league this season, only two of these teams in the Indianapolis Kautskys and Sheboygan Red Skins would end up playing in what can be considered the modern-day NBA. Even then, Indianapolis would only play for the 1948–49 BAA season as the Indianapolis Jets before folding operations right before the NBL and BAA merged operations to become the NBA, while Sheboygan would only play for the 1949–50 NBA season before leaving the NBA to create their own rivaling professional basketball league called the National Professional Basketball League (which would not be related to the NPBL that the NBL had been inspired from, as well as ultimately lasted for only one season before being forced to close up operations early). While the Oshkosh All-Stars were also considered for the NBL-BAA merger that became the modern-day NBA, no other NBL team from this season would end up joining the NBA once the two leagues merged.

• During the offseason period, six teams from the previous, inaugural NBL season (the Buffalo Bisons, the Columbus Athletic Supply team, the Dayton Metropolitans, the Fort Wayne General Electrics works team, the Kankakee Gallagher Trojans, and the Richmond King Clothiers turned Cincinnati Comellos) would end up either folding operations entirely or otherwise dropped out of their entry from the NBL this season. Not only that, but the Whiting Ciesar All-Americans would move elsewhere in their home state from Whiting to Hammond, Indiana before the start of this season to become the Hammond Ciesar All-Americans for the rest of their existence going forward, thus making the Ciesar All-Americans franchise the first NBL squad to move operations in an offseason period during the NBL's own existence properly.
• Also during the offseason period, the NBL abolished the center jump ball rule that was utilized after every made shot in the game after previously allowing the home team to decide on whether to utilize the rule or not during the previous season of play. Not only that, but the NBL would also try to acquire some star college basketball players from this time in future Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Hank Luisetti and future BAA (which later became the NBA) player Mike Bloom; while they would fail in those specific endeavors this season, they would still pick up some notably good players all the same in individuals like Buddy Jeannette.^[3]
• Sometime before the NBL season began, the Indianapolis Kautskys allowed for team owner and general manager Frank Kautsky to resign from his duties as head coach and instead let an individual named Bob Nipper coach the Kautskys for him. This would officially be the first coaching change made in the NBL's history that occurred while using the NBL name without involving a team changing locations during the season along the way.
• Before this season began, it was agreed that the NBL would have their season involve each team playing two games (one at home and the other on the road) against every team in the opposite division, with the NBL following college basketball rules at the time outside of the implementation of five fouls being the maximum amount before a player is ruled out of the game instead of the previous four fouls at hand (primarily for the purpose of aiding teams that carried small rosters with them on the road), and the NBL would hire their own referees (like Nat Messinger) for the first time, with their assigned games being acclimated by league commissioner Hubert Johnson (who took over the role of commissioner for the NBL from Doc Carlson right before the MBC changed its name to the NBL).^[4]
• On New Year's Eve of 1938, similar to the Oshkosh All-Stars' entry into the NBL a season earlier, the Sheboygan Red Skins would officially make their entry into the NBL as a late team entry there, thus officially turning the seven team league into an eight team league for most of the season going forward. The late entry was done under the approval of new NBL President Lon Darling (owner and general manager of the Oshkosh franchise), with Darling's approval for his new position being done by October 1938.^[4] Every team would adjust the rest of their schedules (including Sheboygan themselves) in order to help accommodate the entry into the season.
• On February 10, 1939, the Warren Penns would move from Warren, Pennsylvania to Cleveland, Ohio due to team owner, general manager, head coach, and player Gerry Archibald getting himself a new team sponsor around this time in White Horse Motors and him being willing to move his team from Warren to Cleveland during the regular season (especially since his team also competed as the Elmira Colonels on the side for the more minor New York-Pennsylvania Basketball League) despite the Warren Penns notably having a good record in the NBL (appearing to have a 9–5 record at the time) before making their move to Cleveland for the rest of the season.^[5][3]
• During this season, the Akron Firestone Non-Skids would start out with a 16–0 record to open their season before losing to their inner city rivaling works team in the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots. That start would later become one of the best starting records (if not the best starting record) for an NBL team ever.
• On March 5, 1939, the Hammond Ciesar All-Americans would end up forfeiting a match they had scheduled to the Cleveland White Horses for unknown reasons (though likely due to poor weather conditions that they couldn't endure to make it to play their match in time), thus making it the fourth time in the NBL's history that a team would end up forfeiting a match to another NBL team during a season of theirs (excluding a forfeited playoff match involving the Fort Wayne General Electrics and the Dayton London Bobbys in the second and final MBC season held) for reasons that likely related to weather issues.^[3]
• Near the end of the regular season, the Hammond Ciesar All-Americans would fire head coach Whitey Wickhorst and replace him with player-coach Lou Boudreau for the rest of their season afterward, thus making this the first in-season coaching change in NBL history without revolving around a location change in the process.
• Due to the Akron Firestone Non-Skids and Oshkosh All-Stars both playing barnstorming games alongside regular season NBL games, the two teams (who coincidentally had the best records in the entire league this season) would end their respective seasons with unofficial records of 44–4 (officially a 24–3 record for NBL games) and 31–15 (officially a 17–11 record for NBL games) respectively.^[6]
• For reasons ultimately unknown to the general public (but probably relating to the NBL not having a viable way to play a tiebreaker game for the second seed in the Eastern Division this year between the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots and the Warren Penns turned Cleveland White Horses franchise while also being fair for the Western Division's second place team in the Indianapolis Kautskys), the NBL Playoffs would be condensed from a two round system that had both rounds be in a best of three games series of matches to just a best of five NBL Championship series between the two best teams in each division (which would be the Akron Firestone Non-Skids and Oshkosh All-Stars) competing in five different games to determine the champion of the NBL this season.
• Following the conclusion of the NBL Playoffs (which was just the championship series round this time around), both the Oshkosh All-Stars and Sheboygan Red Skins would compete in a new tournament held in Chicago called the World Professional Basketball Tournament that pit multiple independent teams alongside some of the NBL's teams and even the rivaling American Basketball League's own Troy Celtics this season (with the Philadelphia Sphas planned to join the Troy Celtics as well before injury problems caused them to drop out and be replaced at the last minute with the Illinois Grads team involving college graduate students from Champagne, Illinois^[7]) against each other, with the 1939 event showcasing an odd, eleven teams competing to win the special honor of being dubbed the best basketball team in the nation, as well as a prize of $10,000 (which would be separated to the players for a total of $1,000 each^[8]) being given out to the winners alongside a third place consolation prize game being done before that tournament's championship game occurred. Both Sheboygan and Oshkosh would face off against each other in the semifinal round, with Sheboygan losing that game to Oshkosh (and subsequently losing their third place game to the world famous all-black Harlem Globetrotters) and Oshkosh losing the championship game to the all-black New York Renaissance. Despite this ending, this would still mark the start of a decade-long tournament that the NBL would play a significant part in for the majority of its lifespan afterward.

For some unknown reason, this NBL season was the only NBL season to not utilize a playoff system similar to what they had for not just the previous season, but also their subsequent seasons going forward into the rest of the league's existence. Instead, the 1939 NBL Playoffs was really just the best teams from the Eastern Division and the Western Division (which were the Akron Firestone Non-Skids and the Oshkosh All-Stars respectively) competing in a best of five winner takes all championship series to determine the championship for the entire NBL. To make up for the lack of a proper playoff beyond the championship series for this season, this championship matchup will be a best of five series held on March 14–20, 1939 this time around instead of a best of three series like it was the previous season. Luckily for the NBL, this championship series would actually utilize all five matches for this series, with the Firestone Non-Skids defeating the Oshkosh All-Stars three games to two (with Akron winning the odd-numbered games) for their first championship in the NBL.

Note: Prior to the 1969–70 NBA season, league leaders in points were determined by totals rather than averages. Also, rebounding and assist numbers were not recorded properly in the NBL like they would be in the BAA/NBA, as would field goal and free-throw shooting percentages.

• NBL Most Valuable Player: Leroy Edwards, Oshkosh All-Stars
• NBL Coach of the Year: Paul Sheeks, Akron Firestone Non-Skids
• NBL Rookie of the Year: Jewell Young, Indianapolis Kautskys

^[15]

For the first World Professional Basketball Tournament ever hosted, it would feature a total of eleven teams competing in the event held in Chicago, Illinois on March 26–28, 1939, with only two NBL teams in the Oshkosh All-Stars and the Sheboygan Red Skins competing against mostly independently ran teams alongside the Troy Celtics of the rivaling American Basketball League. The prize for this inaugural tournament in question involved a prize money pool of $10,000, which was later revealed to be a $1,000 prize given to each player on the winning team.^[8][16] Originally, the Philadelphia Sphas of the rivaling ABL were supposed to have been invited to the inaugural tournament, but they ultimately cancelled their invitation due to multiple injuries to their players entering the tournament this year, which led to the Illinois Grads from nearby Champaign, Illinois taking their spot instead.^[7] Not only that, but it was originally planned to have five teams from the NBL's side of things (the Akron Firestone Non-Skids, the Hammond Ciesar All-Americans, the Indianapolis Kautskys, and the All-Stars and Red Skins teams that actually did play in this event) being joined with the aforementioned Sphas and Troy Celtics alongside the Jersey Reds of the ABL, the world-famous all-black Harlem Globetrotters, the all-black New York Renaissance, and two other teams planned to be out west, but for various unknown reasons, this event only saw Oshkosh and Sheboygan entering for the NBL's side, the Troy Celtics from the ABL's side entering, and more independently ran teams (including the former ABL team known as the Bronx Yankees, who became the New York Yankees later in the season they had left the ABL at the end of the first half of that only season they were there) taking on spots for the inaugural WPBT.^[17] Because of the awkward formatting for this year's tournament with the odd number of teams competing, this led to the independently ran Chicago Harmons and New York Renaissance alongside the ABL's Troy Celtics receiving first round byes in the tournament, while the NBL's Oshkosh All-Stars received a quarterfinal bye following their first round victory over the independently ran Clarksburg Oil team from West Virginia.^[18] The upper half of the quarterfinals involved teams that were originally based in Chicago (the world famous Harlem Globetrotters originally started out in Chicago) competing against each other and teams based in New York competing against each other, while the lower half of the quarterfinals featured the three teams that remained in professional leagues at the time in the NBL & ABL.

Between the two competing NBL teams this season that are also competing in this event, the new Sheboygan Red Skins NBL teams would defeat the replacement Illinois Grads team 47–29, while the Oshkosh All-Stars would defeat the Clarksburg Oil team 40–33 in order to receive a very interestingly placed bye in the quarterfinal round. Because of the awkward formatting done for this tournament, only the Sheboygan Red Skins would play in the quarterfinal round between the two teams in question, though luckily for them, they would end up the Troy Celtics of the rivaling American Basketball League with a 36–29 score to move up to the semifinal round alongside the Oshkosh All-Stars. Unfortunately, this would turn out to be the point where only one of them would have to compete in the championship round, while the other would compete for a chance at third place, as the tournament would place Oshkosh and Sheboygan against each other for the first time in a playoff setting. In this case, the Oshkosh All-Stars would be a lot better rested up when compared to the Sheboygan Red Skins (who played their quarterfinal game on the same day as their semifinal game, which was on March 27), which led to Oshkosh blowing out Sheboygan with a 40–23 victory to give Oshkosh a shot at winning the inaugural WPBT championship and Sheboygan a shot at winning third place. Unfortunately for both NBL squads competing in the inaugural championship, neither team would get the desired outcome that they were hoping for, as Sheboygan would lose a close 36–33 match to the world famous all-black Harlem Globetrotters and Oshkosh would have a bad first half that they wouldn't recover from to let the all-black New York Renaissance (a team that's considered more like a 100% serious version of the Harlem Globetrotters) defeat them with a 34–25 final score for the Renaissance's Puggy Bell to be named the inaugural MVP of the event. Following this season's end, the Chicago Harmons would rebrand themselves back to the Chicago Bruins name they held back in the original American Basketball League's tenure due to Chicago Bears owner George Halas feeling like the city of Chicago was ready for professional basketball to succeed there once again before the Great Depression began and decided to join the NBL instead of the revived ABL.

• National Basketball League (United States)

• NBL Standings, 1937–1949 on apbr.org
• National Basketball League III – 1938–39 NBL Season Overview on retroseasons.com